Environmental Issues: U.S. Law & Policy

All Documents in U.S. Law & Policy Tagged rivers

An October 2002 NRDC report -- issued on the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Clean Water Act -- that assesses the impact this landmark environmental law has had on the safety and environmental health of the nation’s waterways and documents the Bush administration's sustained attack on clean water protections.

Documents Tagged rivers in All Sections

In the 1940s, a giant dam nearly killed California's San Joaquin River and its legendary salmon run. A court ruling could bring the river back to life, restoring the salmon fishery, providing clean irrigation water for farms and improving drinking water quality for millions of Californians.

In response to a public health emergency more than 100 years ago, engineers reversed the Chicago River and built the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to carry wastewater away from Lake Michigan, the city’s source of drinking water. The canal also provides a shipping link between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes, opening navigation not only to recreational boats and commercial barges, but also to invasive species, and it diverts massive amounts of water from Lake Michigan. The unfolding Asian carp crisis reveals more than just the challenges faced by local, state, and federal agencies in stopping invasive species from entering the Great Lakes. It also exposes critical infrastructure deficiencies in the region’s wastewater, stormwater, and transportation systems.

Clearing the WatersFrom the Chesapeake to California, NRDC is fighting to restore America’s threatened waterwaysOverview

The United States has made significant progress cleaning up the nation's waterways since Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, but much more remains to be done. Although some of the most obvious signs of contamination have disappeared, other sources of pollution persist, and water resources are frequently overtaxed, particularly in the West.